for

But, Mrs. Lewis, think how lovingly God has provided you and your children while you have been lying here quite helpless."

"Yes, miss; but it seems easier like to trust Him when you must lie still and leave things alone, than when it's your duty to struggle on for daily bread, knowing to-morrow will be just the same as to-day, and very likely harder; and then I can't expect to be strong again for a long time; and while I've been ill, there's been the allowance from the church, and that must stop now, for there are plenty more sick people to want it; and though it was little enough, you see, miss, it was a certainty." And here poor Mrs. Lewis began to cry.

Her friend sat for a few minutes holding the poor widow's wasted hand, and silently asking for words to comfort her. She knew Mrs. Lewis was a sincere Christian; one who had long known and believed the love of God in Christ Jesus; and she was sure that her present depression was in great measure caused by bodily weakness. At length she said: "What made you think, Mrs. Lewis, that the church allowance was a certainty?"

The sick woman looked surprised at the question.

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Why, miss," she said, "I had Mr. White's word for it. 'As long as you're laid by, Mrs. Lewis,' says he, 'we've settled to allow you five shillings a week."

66 And you never felt any doubt about the promise being kept ?"

66

No, miss, not so long as he was alive and had the money."

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Then, Mrs. Lewis, there were two uncertainties at once: Mr. White might not live, or the money might be wanting. But here are promises quite certain to be kept;" and taking up Mrs. Lewis's well-worn Bible, she read, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." "Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. Seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you." "My God

shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." "The morrow shall take thought for the things of itself." "These," added Miss Annesley, "are the words to you of the living God, and His riches are as endless as the power of His creating word. It's one of our special rights as His children to be without anxiety."

"Well, miss," answered the widow in a melancholy tone, "it's a right I don't seem able to keep hold of."

Do you

"But there's another side to it, Mrs. Lewis. ever think of God's right in the matter? You are not only wronging yourself by anxiety about the morrow-you are robbing Him of the trust which is His due. Think how it must grieve our heavenly Father, who has shown such unspeakable love towards us, that we should be doubting His promises. He may well say to us, as to His Israel of old, 'O my people, what have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee? for I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.""

This was a light in which Mrs. Lewis had not before viewed her doubts and fears, and her friend left her to think it over, feeling she could help her better by praying for her than by saying anything more to her just then.

When, a day or two afterwards, she called again, Mrs. Lewis was sitting by a bright fire, with a piece of work in her hand and her Bible open on the table beside her. She was still very pale and feeble, but her face wore a look of content and hopefulness.

"I've been wanting to see you, miss," she said; "please to take a seat. I'm afraid I was very ungrateful for your good words the other day, but it all came home to me afterwards; and now I can't bear to think of having doubted God's goodness.'

"I see," Miss Annesley replied, "you have had your wants supplied. What a nice warm shawl that is!" It was made of crochet-work in dark blue wool, and was large enough to wrap across the chest and tie at the back.

"Yes, miss; I told my little girl you'd be sure to notice it; it's every bit her work, and you see how it goes just where the cold might strike me; but there's more comfort in it than that: it brings home to me, like a sermon, all you were saying out of the Bible about trusting in God and not worrying about to-morrow.”

"May I have the comfort of the sermon too?" asked her friend.

"Well, miss, it was like this. The day the children were coming back to me, and I was feeling troubled about how we should get along, my Jenny came running in all out of breath with a great parcel, and she threw it on my lap and put her arms round my neck, and said, half laughing and half crying, 'It's for you, mother, and it's all my work;' and when I opened it there was this very shawl. 'But,' I said to her, Jenny, my child, how did you get the money for the wool?' 'I got it a farthing skein at a time, mother,' she said; and as soon as ever I'd finished one skein, there was always the farthing ready to buy another. Sometimes aunt gave me the farthing change when I went errands for her; once I picked one up in the court, and everybody said it wasn't theirs; then a lady who came to teach work at the school gave us a penny each for hemming dusters; but I only had a penny twice; it oftenest came just by farthings, and I liked it best like that.' So I asked her why; and she said, It was oftener something to be glad of, mother, and then just to look out where another farthing was to come from. I think God sent them, mother,' she says. "It's because of the farthing skeins there are so many knots, but I thought you'd be able to sew them down.' However, miss," added Mrs. Lewis, "I'm inclined just to leave the knots as they are, to keep me in mind how there's a fresh | help ready whenever the last is used up. I'm finding it so, miss; what with coals sent to me, and bread tickets, and work paid beforehand that I needn't hurry with, there's something to thank Him for every hour of the day."

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"Yes," answered her visitor, "it is such a cheering

thought that our daily thanks and praise are dear to our Father in heaven, so that for His own sake as well as ours He would have us live by the day: as we read in Ezra, 'That which they have need of, let it be given them day by day without fail, that they may offer sacrifices of sweet savour unto the God of heaven.' It is that we may have, like Jenny, something oftener to be glad of;' it is to teach us to say, 'Thy mercies are new every morning;' 'Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation,'—that our supplies are sometimes sent, like the money for Jenny's wool, 'a farthing at a time;' and most surely we shall reach our home above to tell, like Jenny, how in one way or another, for every time of need, there was always the farthing ready.""

A. J T.

The Blind Preacher.

R. M. was a prosperous merchant living in the city of B. He was not, however, a happy man, but very far, indeed, from it. He was well provided for, having been very successful in business, and therefore he had no temporal burden to carry; but he had one which is much heavier to bear, and with which many are but too familiar-a burdened conscience.

This in his case, as in all others, spoilt all his enjoyments, and robbed his life of all its bloom and comfort. Dread of death and judgment hung like a heavy cloud over his path, and deprived him of all real happiness and peace. His wife, family, and friends had tried all they knew, and often did their very best to dispel these clouds; but in vain. Indeed, the source of his frequent depression was hidden from them. Many, however, had been the attempts which Mr. M. ́had made to remove the burden from his soul. Besides avoiding all known sin, he read the Scriptures constantly, prayed, visited and relieved the poor, and most

scrupulously and liberally devoted a portion of his income to the cause of God; but still all in vain: his conscience still retained its burden.

At last, however, passing on his way through the City, on his way to his office, like Bunyan's Pilgrim with his burden on his back, he observed a number of persons congregated around a blind man who was reading aloud from the New Testament with his fingers. He joined the crowd, and "There listened just as the man was repeating the wordsis none other name given among men whereby we can be "These words were saved than that which is givenread by the man several times. lost the connection, and while regain it, kept repeating the words " There is none other "There is none other name

name

The truth was that he had seeking with his fingers to

Mr. M. thought it very strange, and the words so fixed themselves upon his memory that, on arriving at his office, he took a small Testament out of his desk and sought for the words. He had some idea of their connection, and soon found them. He found that the name referred to was that of Jesus Christ; he wondered he should have overlooked the passage before. Only one name by which we are to be saved, only ONE, he kept repeating to himself. And how does it save, and what does it mean? At last he closed his door and locked it, and, falling upon his knees, he called upon the Saviour for light and salvation, and at last rose with his heart lightened, and a secret hope in his heart to which he had been a stranger for years. And thus he continued to pray and read the New Testament, and it was not long before he saw God's way of saving the soul through the work of Christ; and, looking and resting upon His death as the only ground of his acceptance before God, he found peace by believing, and thus entered into rest.

Reader, notice the love of God in making use of our trouble to bring us to His feet and prepare us to receive His blessing; and do not despise trouble of conscience, but